Adidas is terminating its collaboration with Kanye West, effective immediately. Adidas has ended its partnership with Kanye West, citing his recent behavior as the reason. The German sportswear giant had been working with the American rapper and fashion designer since 2013.
This is a significant blow to Kanye West. He has built his Yeezy brand on the back of the Adidas partnership. Kanye West’s Yeezy brand is one of the most successful celebrity-endorsed fashion lines in recent memory. Adidas and Kanye West collaborated to produce the line in the beginning. It has managed to straddle the line between high fashion and streetwear.
West has not yet revealed what he plans to do now that Adidas has ended their collaboration. Considering his history, it is likely that he will seek out another major brand to work with. Here’s what Adidas had to say about this subject in their latest press release:
adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech. Kanye West’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.
After a thorough review, the company has taken the decision to terminate the partnership with Ye immediately, end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies. adidas will stop the adidas Yeezy business with immediate effect.
This is expected to have a short-term negative impact of up to €250 million on the company’s net income in 2022 given the high seasonality of the fourth quarter.
adidas is the sole owner of all design rights to existing products as well as previous and new colorways under the partnership. More information will be given as part of the company’s upcoming Q3 earnings announcement on November 9, 2022.
In other news, Adidas may restock the Yeezy Boost 350 v2 Zebra, though recent events may alter the brand’s original release schedule.
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Vlad Ciutacu is a writer based in The Hague, Netherlands. He has been working in the footwear industry for more than a decade, with hundreds of pairs in his collection. His favourite models are the Air Jordan 1 and the Nike SB Dunk Low Pro. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
